I had so many issues when I ran this module with my players. They were a bit inexperienced though.
I noticed the PCs really need to have a good reason for why they are helping this town. Because the monster seems so scary that if the PCs have no connection to the town, they want to leave it! Even PCs that lived in the town thought fleeing was the best option. I guess maybe they were more cowardly? Maybe I just really made the monster seem scary (haha!).
The insane asylum was so long. It took forever because of all the lunatics and guards battles and size and exploring. The PCs started getting a little bored with the area (even tho they thought the lunatics were interesting but I guess there was just too much). Maybe my party was just slow or I should have done stuff differently to make it more interesting?
Crove cast web and the fight was pretty much over. The only reason it wasn't was because he wanted to talk to them to figure out why they were here. The bard ended up finally escaping from the web and went invisible and cast Deafness on Crove so that saved the day pretty much. (I think I was being pretty lenient with this tho)
Then that chaos beast under the asylum is tough. The PCs had to run away from him and had no way of getting rid of his curse (restoration is a higher level spell). (I was also being very lenient with this)
The other two cultists weren't as eventful. The necromancer has a tentacles spell that is quite harsh (the PCs almost gave up after dealing with that spell!). The bard took care of the alchemist/rogue guy quickly with Charm person.
Also, I did this module part-way with one group and most-way with another. Both groups wanted to go to the insane asylum first. I felt like this was sort of lame because Crove was like the cultist leader and the other cultists were small fry? Did anyone else feel this way?
The party really wanted to two cultists to help them. They didn't care if they were evil, they wanted help defeating the monster (because they were terrified of the monster). But like the cultists would rather die than face the monster; so why didn't they just kill themselves if they would rather die? So I wasn't sure if the cultists would team up with the PCs or not. Would they? The alchemist was making a poison to stop the monster, so he'd probably help.
I'm curious about other people's experience?
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I just started this last week with a party of 6 PCs. They got to the dark creepers and wiped em out easily, though I was giving the party hints that they should try to communicate and gain a little info. Tonight they're headed down to the Sunless Grove. I'm adding an extra couple ghouls to fight with the main baddie down there.
It seems that a lot of groups want to go to the asylum first. I plan on trying to steer them away from that with a couple of tricks. Only one of the keepers' bodies is left in the Sunless Grove, that of Keeper Baskerwell. When the PCs emerge from below and talk to the mayor again, he will get excited when he sees Myre's name. Myre has been under investigation for necromancy, and the mayor will ask the PCs to go there first. After dealing with that, they PCs will hear a report of another attack, this one near the church. When they arrive to investigate, they'll find the blood drained body of Keeper Marshan. Since they're near the church, hopefully they'll go there instead of the Asylum.
Hopefully this all works, but at the same time I hope that they PCs don't feel railroaded.
